


Holiday Interruptus

by Spikedluv



Category: Primeval
Genre: Abby Maitland Cameo, Community: Primeval Denial, Established Relationship, James Lester Cameo, M/M, Tom Ryan Cameo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 10:06:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7166816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spikedluv/pseuds/Spikedluv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick and Stephen’s holiday keeps getting interrupted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holiday Interruptus

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place at some indeterminate time during season one, or a later season where ep 1.06 never happened. 
> 
> Written for the Art Prompt Challenge at Primeval Denial on LJ for the art prompt included below.
> 
> My deepest thanks to Goldarrow who created some truly inspiring art. I’ve included it below, but you should check out her art post [here on Primeval Denial](http://primeval-denial.livejournal.com/5095557.html) and show her some love.
> 
> Written: June 11, 2016

[ ](http://smg.photobucket.com/user/spikedluv/media/Fic%20Covers/art%20prompt%202016%20by%20jan.png.html)

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Stephen grumbled into the pillow when Nick’s cell phone went off a second time, and then his own joined in the chorus. “Who would be calling this early?”

Nick was just as loathe to move, but he slid his hand along the dip at Stephen’s lower back and pressed a kiss to the back of his shoulder before reaching across him and grabbing the closest cell phone off the night stand. He frowned when he saw the name on the screen.

“Home Office,” Nick told Stephen before he slid his thumb across the screen to accept the call.

Stephen groaned. “We’re on bloody holiday.”

A very well-earned holiday, in Nick’s opinion, after the past few months of too many late nights, and too little sleep, between their work at the University and the anomalies. “Cutter,” Nick barked into the phone, letting his annoyance at being disturbed bleed through.

There was a moment of silence as the person on the other end processed the fact that Nick had answered Stephen’s cell. “We have another anomaly,” James Lester finally said, and Nick’s phone cut off in the middle of the Jurassic Park theme song because Stephen was an arse when he’d had too much wine.

“We’re on holiday,” Nick reminded Lester.

“Which has put you in the right place at the right time,” Lester said without a trace of remorse. “An anomaly has opened about six miles from your current location.”

“No,” Nick said, even though he felt the first stirring of interest at what the anomalies represented.

“Mr. Temple is already on his way,” Lester went on as if Nick hadn’t spoken. “He should be sober by the time he gets there. He’ll meet you in the lobby in three hours.”

“What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?” Nick said, though by now it was just a formality.

“All your gear will be delivered with Mr. Temple.”

“What about Abby?”

“We haven’t been able to get hold of Miss Maitland,” Lester said. “But we’ve sent a transport to pick her up.”

“How do you know where she is? Wait,” Nick said. “How’d you know where _we_ are?”

“We’re the government, Professor Cutter, we know where everyone is.”

Nick didn’t doubt it. “What about Claudia Brown?” he said, naming the final member of their ‘team’.

“Don’t be ridiculous; Claudia Brown is on holiday,” Lester said, and then the line went dead.

Nick stared at the screen, then let himself fall back onto the pillow, lying close enough to Stephen that one shoulder was propped up on Stephen’s.

“What did Lester say?”

“Anomaly, six miles from here, Connor and our gear are on the way.”

Stephen groaned again. “Bloody Lester.” He moved, pulling his shoulder out from under Nick and rolling onto his side so he faced him. “How much time do we have?” Stephen asked.

“Three hours,” Nick said as Stephen took the cell out of Nick’s unresisting fingers and dropped it on the bed behind him where it would probably get lost in the rumpled sheets.

“Then we’d better make the most of it.”

~*~

Nick and Stephen were waiting in the lobby when two vehicles pulled up, the front Hilux disgorging Connor and Captain Ryan. In addition to making the most of what little holiday time they had left before duty called, Nick and Stephen had found time to shower and eat breakfast at the restaurant attached to the Glencoe Lodge, and then settled themselves in the lobby to await their ride. Since then, Stephen had been talking to a young woman called Heather, who was trying to convince Stephen to go skiing with her and the group of female friends she’d arrived with.

Nick was sipping coffee and pretending to read The Times, making his best attempt to keep his lips from curling up at Stephen’s predicament. Even Stephen’s comments that he was there with a friend, and that they were meeting someone, didn’t deter her efforts. Nick had seated himself facing the front doors, and so he was the first to notice the trucks pull up. He set aside the coffee cup and newspaper, and rose, grabbing both his and Stephen’s heavy winter jackets off the chair where they’d lain them.

“Stephen,” Nick said.

Stephen quickly turned towards Nick, relief in his eyes (though he managed to keep the emotion off his face so as not to insult his admirer), along with the promise of retribution for Nick having failed to rescue him earlier. As Nick handed the coat to Stephen, he leaned in and brushed a quick kiss across Stephen’s lips. Stephen’s mouth opened in surprise at the gesture because Nick wasn’t normally one for PDAs.

“Stephen! Professor Cutter!” Connor called when he walked through the front door and saw them both standing in the lobby. “Isn’t this exciting?”

“We were on holiday,” Stephen groused, as much to cover his reaction to Nick’s chaste kiss as in real annoyance. He pulled on the coat, then snagged a knit cap out from the pocket and jammed it on his head.

“Hello, Connor,” Nick said. “You don’t look hung-over.”

“What?”

“Lester said you needed to sober up.”

“Oh!” Connor said. “No. Not that kind of bender. World of Warcraft marathon. You should’ve been there.”

“Sorry I missed it,” Stephen said, giving Nick a narrow-eyed look before heading towards the doors with Connor one step behind him.

Nick slipped into his own coat and zipped it up as he followed them. He glanced back at the persistent woman to whom Stephen, discombobulated by Nick’s innocent PDA, hadn’t even bothered to offer a polite excuse. Nick didn’t know if it was the discovery that Stephen and he were more than friends, or the military escort, but she regarded Stephen with an indecipherable expression, and it seemed to Nick that she was even more intrigued now. Nick ducked his head so that neither she nor Stephen would see his smile.

Nick gave Ryan a pleasant hello at the rear passenger door to the Hilux, since it wasn’t his fault that Lester had roused them with an unwelcome phone call that morning, and was still smiling as he slid into the backseat of the truck with Stephen.

“What?” Stephen said suspiciously.

“Nothing,” Nick said serenely, earning himself a glare from Stephen that was belied by the high color on his cheeks. With some effort, Nick turned his attention to the job at hand, and said, “What can you tell us about this anomaly, Connor?”

~*~

They had to park the trucks and approach the anomaly site on foot. Stephen adjusted the pack on his back, slung the tranquilizer gun over his shoulder, and took the lead. Though his full attention appeared to be on the trail as he looked for tracks or other trace of incursion, he never stumbled or ran into anything, an ability of which Nick was deeply envious. Captain Ryan followed behind Stephen, then Nick and Connor, with the rest of the special forces team taking up the rear.

Connor held the anomaly detector in his hand, measuring the strength of the anomaly. Nick lent half of his attention to Connor’s running commentary about the anomaly, while the rest was on the path ahead of them as he searched for a glimpse of the anomaly through the trees. He could just make out the sparkling broken glass effect of the anomaly when Stephen held up his fist and indicated that they should stop. Stephen knelt down and studied the trail.

“What is it?” Nick said as he moved up to stand beside Ryan. Stephen pointed to the ground where there were several prints in the snow. The tracks led from the anomaly to their left and into the trees at their right. They were small and three toed, like a bird.

“Bloody hell,” Nick said. If the creature was capable of flight, they’d have a difficult time tracking it.

“On the bright side,” Stephen said as he stood up and turned his gaze to the left, in the direction of the anomaly, “it’s not another Raptor.”

“If you just jinxed us, I’ll kill you myself,” Ryan said.

Stephen grinned over his shoulder at Ryan, then let his gaze find Nick’s.

Nick ignored the warmth blooming in his chest. “Let’s continue to the anomaly and make sure that only the one creature came through.”

Twelve minutes later they came upon the anomaly which had opened inside the bloody big trunk of a Douglas fir. Stephen cautiously approached the anomaly, head bent as he studied the ground. Ryan went with him, ready to grab him out of the way at a moment’s notice should another creature emerge, or the anomaly change.

“Just the one,” Stephen confirmed finally, raising his head and stepping back towards the rest of the team.

As always, Nick was attracted to the anomaly, the shards of time that glittered in the air like pieces of a broken mirror. There was a fire in his gut to see what was on the other side. But first things first. When Nick tuned back in, Connor was already setting up the rover while Ryan spread out his team, some to guard the anomaly, the others to watch their backs.

“Everything alright?” Stephen said, stepping up beside Nick and speaking in a low voice so only Nick could hear him.

“Yes, of course,” Nick said.

Stephen looked at Nick, then the anomaly, then back at Nick. He smiled.

“What?” Nick said too sharply. Because of course Stephen had noticed Nick’s momentary distraction, and correctly guessed its source.

Stephen shook his head. “You’re so easy.”

“I bloody well am not,” Nick grumbled, but instead of engaging, Stephen remained silent, that same small smile curving up the corners of his lips.

Once the rover was set up and Connor got it moving towards the anomaly, Nick went on alert. He couldn’t see it, but he knew that Stephen’s smile widened, even as they both moved so they could see the laptop screen. The ground on the other side of the anomaly was uneven, and the imaged jerked along with the rover, but Nick couldn’t take his eyes off the screen. The camera panned, showing a vista of lush greens and blues. A few moments later the rover sent back atmospheric readings.

“Sometime during the Late Jurassic, looks like,” Connor observed.

Stephen frowned in concentration at the readings. “Tithonian,” he guessed.

Ryan accompanied Nick, Stephen, and Connor on their search for the creature that had come through from the Tithonian (Nick had no reason to doubt Stephen’s guess), leaving the rest of his team to guard the anomaly against further incursions. Nick couldn’t resist one last glance behind him at the anomaly before he fell into step with the others.

They retraced their path, keeping an eye out for any sign that the creature had doubled back. When they reached the point where they’d originally encountered the tracks, Stephen once again bent his head to the task. The creature stuck to the ground for the most part, but there were long patches of unmarked snow where Nick thought they might’ve lost the creature’s trail, only to come upon it a dozen yards further on.

Eventually Stephen said, “I don’t think the creature can fly. Probably leaps, or gets just enough air to elude danger and glides.”

They continued on for a few more miles, retracing their steps when the creature leapt or glided off in a different direction than they’d expected, but finally Stephen halted them and silently pointed. Everyone’s eyes turned to where the creature sat at the top of a tall cedar across a large clearing.

“Oh my god,” Connor whispered. “Do you know what that is?”

“An Archaeopteryx,” Stephen said absently, his eyes still on the creature even as he very slowly slipped the shotgun off his shoulder.

“It’s an . . . .” Connor cut off and gave Stephen a glare that held a bit of surprise.

“What?” Stephen said when he noticed the silence more than the look. “I’m more than a pretty face, you know.”

“And modest, too,” Ryan said.

“Yes, it’s an Archaeopteryx,” Connor said. “Do you know what that means?”

“The Archaeopteryx is believed to be a transitional creature between dinosaurs and modern birds,” Stephen said.

Connor’s face twisted as if he’d bitten into a lemon at Stephen stealing his thunder, but he was too excited about the creature to acknowledge it this time. “Abby is going to _kick_ herself that she didn’t get to see this!”

“She’s probably just happy to still be enjoying her holiday,” Stephen said pointedly.

“Let’s get this creature back through the anomaly so you can get back to yours,” Ryan suggested.

Now that they’d seen the creature and Stephen could gauge its mass, he loaded the shotgun with a shell containing a smaller dose of the tranquilizer. He raised the shotgun and sighted in on the Archaeopteryx. It lifted off and glided to another, shorter tree, its motions a bit sluggish, as if the cold weather it was unused to was interfering with its ability to maneuver.

Stephen kept the shotgun trained on the creature. He waited patiently until the Archaeopteryx, which appeared aware of their presence, but not spooked by it, had settled back down before he took the shot. The Archaeopteryx screamed when it was hit, its jaw opening wide to show off rows of sharp teeth. It dove towards them, wings spread, the three claws on its wings stretched as if it would grab them up.

Nick didn’t take his eyes off the creature, though he heard Stephen expel the spent shell and reload a fresh tranquilizer round. He had reached out for Connor, ready to pull him to safety when the Archaeopteryx’s glide went from smooth to choppy, and then it crashed into the ground, sliding for about twenty feet, raising a shower of snow, dirt, and rocks until it came to a stop just a few yards shy of where they stood.

Stephen waited a moment to be sure that the Archaeopteryx wasn’t going to move before stepping closer to nudge it with the toe of his boot. When it still didn’t move, Stephen unloaded the tranquilizer rifle and gave it to Captain Ryan to hold while he swung the pack off his back and dug through it.

While the creature was slightly larger than Archaeopteryx fossils discovered in Solnhofen, Germany had led palaeontologists to speculate, it was only about half again the size of a raven and could easily be carried hammock-style in the blanket Stephen withdrew from his pack. They got the Archaeopteryx loaded and strapped down so that it wouldn’t fall out, or struggle and hurt one of them or itself, and then Nick and Stephen each picked up a corner of the folded blanket and took the first leg of the journey back to the anomaly.

Once the creature was secure, Captain Ryan checked in with the men he’d left back at the anomaly site. There had been no change in the anomaly, and no further incursions. It took them longer to make the return journey, and Nick was glad for Connor’s and Ryan’s help in carrying the bundled creature. He wasn’t the only one who breathed a sigh of relief when the sparkle of the anomaly came into view through the trees.

Stephen checked on the Archaeopteryx while Ryan called the Home Office. Once they’d received the order, they prepared to return the creature through the anomaly. Connor checked his equipment to confirm that there were no creatures lying in wait for them on the other side of the anomaly. “Not that I don’t trust you, mate,” Connor told the soldier who’d been monitoring the feed. The soldier, used to working with Connor, didn’t reply.

“The tranquilizer’s wearing off,” Stephen said in warning.

“All clear,” Connor said.

Nick and Stephen lifted the creature one more time and carried it through the anomaly. On the other side they unstrapped it and rolled it out of the blanket. The Archaeopteryx took a few moments to come out of the sedative, and a few moments more to re-orient itself. The creature shrieked in what Nick took to be relief at being home, and then began a staggering run-leap-glide away from the anomaly.

“The anomaly’s getting weaker,” Connor announced, his voice tinny through the speaker on the rover.

“We’re on our way,” Nick said. “Bring the rover back.”

“Already on it,” Connor said. The rover was his pride and joy. “Run, Spot, run,” Connor muttered to himself as he worked the controls.

Nick couldn’t resist taking a deep breath and a long look around them before looking at Stephen. Stephen gave him a look of understanding, and then they followed the rover back through the anomaly. Nick and Stephen helped Connor pack away the rover, and then they waited while Connor studied the readings on his magnetic field detector, which continued to grow weaker. As they watched, the anomaly shrank, faded, and finally winked out of existence. Even though they’d just stood millions of years in the past, there was no longer any sign of the doorway that had taken them there.

“It’s closed,” Connor announced unnecessarily.

Captain Ryan called in the completed mission, and they began the trek back to where they’d left the trucks.

~*~

Back in their suite at the lodge, Nick and Stephen removed their outerwear and tossed coats, hats, and gloves onto the couch. “Still feel like skiing?” Nick said, already knowing the answer.

Stephen gave Nick a look. “I’m feeling like a warm fire and a hot toddy. Maybe the hot tub later.”

“I like that idea,” Nick said. “Why don’t you take care of building the fire and I’ll make the hot toddies.”

The drive back to the lodge had been made in warm vehicles, but too quick for it to seep into their bones, so a fire and a warm drink sounded just the ticket. By the time Nick finished preparing the drinks in the small kitchenette, flames were crackling nicely along the chunks of chopped wood stacked in the fireplace and Stephen was still feeding it small branches from the stocked wood box. When Nick brought over the drinks, Stephen placed the screen in the fireplace and rearranged himself comfortably in front of it, reaching up to take the drinks out of Nick’s hands so he could join him on the floor, where Stephen had also found time to scatter a blanket and some pillows from the couch.

Stephen’s fingers were warm from the fire when Nick took back one of the mugs. They sat in front of the fire and sipped their hot drinks, letting the heat warm them inside and out, sinking deep into their bones.

Stephen eventually broke the silence. “As anomalies go, that one wasn’t too bad.”

“You mean, aside from it coming in the middle of our holiday?” Nick groused, though not too irritably because he did love the excitement of exploring new, or rather old, worlds.

Stephen grinned. “Aside from that, yes.”

They went quiet once more. Even though they were sitting in front of a crackling fire and sipping hot toddies, with the promise of a hot tub in their near future, Nick still felt like he wasn’t quite all there. He hadn’t had the usual amount of time to process his reactions to seeing a creature long dead, standing in a time long past.

“Hey,” Stephen said.

When Nick’s eyes cleared and he saw Stephen instead of the green trees and blue waters of the Tithonian, he noticed that Stephen had moved closer.

“I know what you’re feeling.”

“Do you,” Nick said. It wasn’t really a question. He and Stephen had been together long enough, and friends before, that they’d both gotten pretty good at reading the other’s feelings and moods, not to mention finishing their thoughts and sentences.

“Part of you is still in the Tithonian,” Stephen said, setting his mug on the hearth. “But I think I know how to get all of you back right here with me.”

“Do you,” Nick said again. This time the words were a little bit breathless and accompanied with a tiny shiver as Stephen’s fingers brushed his when he took the mug and set it beside his own. Even without the look in Stephen’s eyes, Nick had more than an inkling of where this was going.

“I do,” Stephen said sagely as he got to his knees and crawled up the length of Nick’s legs so he could straddle his lap.

Nick kept himself supported on one hand, and raised the other to curl around Stephen’s hip, felt the heat of him through the denim. Stephen steadied himself with both hands on Nick’s shoulders, and leaned in to brush his lips across Nick’s in a kiss that mirrored the one he’d given Stephen that morning in the lobby.

Stephen gasped when Nick’s fingers slipped beneath layers of sweater and t-shirt to find skin, and the kiss deepened, his tongue slipping between Nick’s lips, moving over his teeth, sliding against Nick’s own tongue. One kiss led to another, and another, and when they finally broke apart they were both breathing heavily.

“Well,” Nick said, trying to control his panting breaths. “Get on with it, then.”

He managed to surprise a laugh out of Stephen, who muttered, “Ass,” even as he pressed Nick back into the pillows.

~*~

“Did you order room service?” Stephen said much later when there was a knock on the door.

“I did not,” Nick said as he pulled himself out of the hot tub. But it was a good idea, because he didn’t feel like leaving their suite for the rest of the evening, and it wasn’t just because he was fucked out and lethargic from the heat of the hot tub.

Nick gave himself a cursory swipe with a soft, thick towel provided by the Lodge, and pulled jeans and t-shirt on over still-damp skin, then went to answer the door. It took him a moment to process it when he unexpectedly saw Connor standing there. “Connor?”

“Professor Cutter!” Connor said with too much enthusiasm. “Great news!”

Connor reached out and dragged Abby into view. She winced and waved. “Professor.”

“Abby made it after all,” Connor said unnecessarily.

“I see that. Hello, Abby. But how is that good news? I mean, the, uh, job’s already complete.”

“Because Connor wanted to say, there’s good news, and there’s bad news,” Abby said wryly.

“Besides that, having Abby around is always good,” Connor said. “Um, but yes, bad news. There’s a blizzard . . . somewhere. Planes are grounded, so we can’t fly out.”

Nick raised his eyebrows at Abby.

“I was on the last flight in,” Abby explained.

“So we decided . . . .”

“You decided,” Abby corrected.

Connor ignored her. “. . . to come back here to stay the night because it looked like a fun place.”

“There’s a lot to do,” Nick agreed. It was why he and Stephen had chosen the area, after all. “Skiing, snowboarding. I’m sure you’ll both enjoy yourselves.”

“Yeah, about that,” Connor said.

Abby rolled her eyes. “They’re full up,” she said. “No rooms available.”

“Uh,” Nick said, taken by surprise at the request he felt coming.

“We called around,” Connor said quickly, “but because of the flights being canceled due to the blizzard, every place in the area is booked full.”

“You can both fight over the sofa bed,” Stephen said from behind Nick.

The expressions on both Connor’s and Abby’s faces warned Nick before he turned around, but he still wasn’t prepared for what he saw. Stephen was in the open doorway to the bedroom, shoulders pressed against the doorframe, hips loose. He’d pulled on a pair of jeans, but hadn’t bothered with the t-shirt he held bunched up in his hand, or with fastening the button or fly, for that matter.

“But you’ve interrupted Nick and I in the middle of something,” Stephen went on, shamelessly. “So unless you’ve brought ear plugs with you, you might want to check out the bar downstairs.”

For a moment no one moved, not even Nick who felt as if the air had been knocked out of him. Abby recovered first.

“Bar sounds good,” she said, her voice thick, the hand with which she blindly reached out for Connor’s arm missing on the first two tries before she finally connected and gave him a jerk that broke his frozen gaze. “We’ll, uh, see you later,” she said, color rising on her cheeks at the reminder of just how much of Stephen they were all seeing now before they both fled.

“That was mean,” Nick said as he closed the door. Lightly, though, because he still hadn’t quite recovered from seeing Stephen like that, nor was he over the disappointment of having plans for their night in ruined.

“Was it,” Stephen said as he pushed away from the doorframe and moved further back into the bedroom. By the time Nick had crossed the living area to the suite, Stephen stood beside the night stand, Lodge phone in his hand.

“Hello,” Stephen said when someone answered at the other end. “Yes, this is room 214. We have some friends visiting us. They’re coming down now to wait for us at the bar. Could you please arrange to have their drinks charged to our room? Thank you.”

Stephen kept his eyes on Nick as he replaced the handset. “Better?”

Nick barely heard the question. He couldn’t take his eyes off Stephen’s bare feet, the lone water droplet meandering down his bare chest, the open jeans doing little to hide his arousal. “What?” Nick said.

Stephen grinned at Nick’s inability to concentrate on anything besides his state of dress. Or rather, undress. The grin turned to a smirk as Nick’s breaths sped up when Stephen slowly slid the jeans down over his hips. Stephen stepped out of the pooled denim and kicked the jeans over to join the abandoned t-shirt already on the floor. He straightened and just stood there, letting Nick look his fill.

“I hope you’re going to do more than look,” Stephen eventually said.

Which gave Nick an idea. “I like looking,” he said. Nick turned to the single stuffed chair in the bedroom and sat, still dressed and showing no inclination to change that fact. Stephen looked confused until Nick said, “Get on the bed, Stephen.”

Stephen shuddered at the command, the slight tremors racking his entire body. He placed one knee on the mattress and looked at Nick through lowered lashes. “How do you want me?”

Those words hit Nick like the slide of Stephen’s hot mouth on his skin. He forgot about everything outside the room. There were no anomalies, no Home Office, no University, no one waiting for them in the bar. Nick slid his hand down the front of his jeans and told Stephen exactly how he wanted him.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> A sampling of the Jurassic Park theme song can be found [here on youtube](https://youtu.be/D8zlUUrFK-M).
> 
> There is no Glencoe Lodge at the [Glencoe Mountain Resort](http://www.glencoemountain.com/), I know this. (At least Google informs me that they only have micro-lodges and a campground.) But I wanted one, so I made one up.
> 
> I based the trees I used on [this information](http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/visit/glencoe-lochan) about Glencoe Lochan.
> 
> As an example of me playing fast and loose with the timeline, I love the notion of using a rover to check out the anomalies, so I’m keeping it. ‘Spot’ is a name Connor gives the rover in another Primeval fic I’m writing, but haven’t finished or posted yet. I liked it, so I’m using it again.


End file.
